Abstract:

A video searching method downloads video files from websites by detecting
name extensions of files on the websites, and classifies the video files
according to specific information of each of the video files. The
specific information is obtained by detecting an image of each of the
video files. The image of each of the video files is compressed to obtain
a thumbnail of the image of each of the video files. A database which
stores the thumbnails of the images and the specific information of the
video files is provided. The thumbnails of the images of video files
relative to a topic of a search request in the database can be listed in
sequence according to corresponding specific information of the relative
video files, as a search result.

Claims:

1. A video searching system comprising:a processor; anda storage device
connected to the processor and storing a plurality of modules each of
which contains one or more computerized instructions to be executed by
the processor, wherein the plurality of modules comprise:a file analyzing
module to recognize video files from a plurality of websites by detecting
name extensions of files on the plurality of websites;a file storing
module to store the video files;an image detecting module to obtain a
thumbnail of an image of each of the video files, and specific
information of each of the video files by detecting the image of each of
the video files, and classifying each of the video files into at least
one classification according to the specific information;a database
storing the thumbnail of the image, and the specific information of each
of the video files; anda searching and ranking module to search the
thumbnails of the images of video files relative to a topic of a search
request in the database according to the at least one classification of
each of the video files, and rank the thumbnails of the images of the
video files relative to the topic of the search request in the database
according to the corresponding specific information.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the specific information of each of the
stored video files comprises names of primary objects in the image of the
stored video file, a degree of matching of each of the primary objects to
the at least one classification of the stored video file, coordinates of
the primary objects in the image, and time downloaded and website
information of each of the stored video files.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein a percentage of an area of each of the
primary objects that occupies the corresponding image is greater than a
predetermined value.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the degree of matching of each of the
primary objects to the at least one classification of the stored video
file is determined according to the percentage of the area of the primary
object that occupies the image.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the thumbnails of the images is
linked with a corresponding stored video file in the file storing module.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the formats of files on the plurality of
websites comprise name extensions of the files.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one classification of each
of the video files comprises a main classification and a secondary
classification.

8. The system of claim 2, wherein the degree of matching of each of the
primary objects to the at least one classification of the stored video
file is determined according to specific features of the primary object.

9. A video searching method comprising:downloading video files from a
plurality of websites to a file storing module via obtaining formats of
files on the plurality of websites;detecting an image of each of the
video files to obtain specific information of each of the video files,
and classifying the video files according to the specific information
correspondingly;compressing the image of each of the video files to
obtain a thumbnail of the image of each of the video files;storing the
thumbnails of the images of the video files and the corresponding
specific information in a database;searching the thumbnails of the images
of video files relative to a topic of a search request in the database
according to the at least one classification of each of the video files;
andranking the thumbnails of the images of the video files relative to
the topic of the search request according to the corresponding specific
information.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein each of the video files are classified
in a main classification and a secondary classification, depending on
percentages of areas of primary objects that occupy the image of each of
the video files correspondingly.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the specific information of each of the
video files comprises names of the primary objects in the image of the
stored video file, a degree of matching of each of the primary objects to
the at least one classification of the video file, coordinates of the
primary objects in the image, and time downloaded and website information
of the video file.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the formats of the files on the
plurality of websites are obtained by detecting name extensions of the
files.

Description:

BACKGROUND

[0001]1. Technical Field

[0002]The present disclosure relates to information searching systems, and
more particularly to a system and a method for performing a video search
on a web.

[0003]2. Description of Related Art

[0004]Currently, the Internet makes it easy to access information on
websites. Keywords may be entered to perform a search, and search results
may be indexed by a search engine. However, it is still a challenge for
users to gather information most pertinent to the topic, since a
considerable part of the search results may not be relevant. Therefore,
search efficiency is low because users must browse through all the search
results, including the results not relevant, this is especially true when
searching for videos.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0005]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a video searching
system.

[0006]FIG. 2 is a flowchart of an embodiment of a video searching method.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0007]Referring to FIG. 1, an embodiment of a video searching system 1
includes a storage 10 and a processor 20. The storage 10 and the
processor 20 are included in a computer server. The storage 10 includes a
file analyzing module 11, a file storing module 12, an image detecting
module 13, a database 14, a searching and ranking module 15, and an
interface module 16. The file analyzing module 11, file storing module
12, image detecting module 13, database 14, searching and ranking module
15, and interface module 16 may include one or more computerized
instructions and are executed by the processor 20. The video searching
system 1 is operable to interface with a personal computer 4 via a
network module 3, which is connected to the video searching system 1. The
video searching system 1 is operable to provide users with an image
database, with which users can perform effective video searches
efficiently.

[0008]The file analyzing module 11 downloads video files from a plurality
of websites via the network module 3. In this embodiment, the file
analyzing module 11 recognizes the video files by detecting formats of
files on the plurality of websites. It can be understood that the formats
of the files denotes that the files are video files, music files, text
files, or other files. The file analyzing module 11 can obtain the
formats of the files according to name extensions of the files. For
example, a file with a name extension of ".jpg", ".jpeg", ".bmp", ".gif",
".ico", ".png", ".tif", ".avi", ".wmv", ".mpg", ".ra", ".flv", or ".mov"
is a video file. Each of the downloaded video files may include one or
more images. The downloaded video files are stored in the file storing
module 12.

[0009]The image detecting module 13 obtains a thumbnail of an image and
specific information of each of the downloaded video files, and
classifies each of the downloaded video files according to the specific
information correspondingly. The specific information of each of the
downloaded video files includes names of primary objects in the images, a
degree of matching of each of the primary objects to a corresponding
classification of the downloaded video file, and coordinates of the
primary objects in the image. The specific information may also include
time downloaded and website information of the video files. When a
downloaded video file includes more than one image, the image detecting
module 13 may obtain a thumbnail of one of the images. A percentage of an
area of each of the primary objects that occupies the image is greater
than a predetermined value, such as 30%.

[0010]It can be understood that known recognition technology is employed
by the image detecting module 13 to obtain the specific information of
the downloaded video files, and known image compression technology is
employed by the image detecting module 13 to obtain the thumbnail of the
image. For example, the image detecting module 13 may recognize the
primary objects of each of the images by detecting color, brightness, or
other features at different locations in the image. A video file may have
a main classification and a secondary classification, depending on
percentages of areas of the primary objects that occupy the image of the
video file. A video file may be classified into a building classification
and a person classification when a building and a person are detected in
the image. The building classification may be a main classification of
the video file, and the person classification may be a secondary
classification of the video file, when there is a greater percentage of
area of the building that occupies the image than that of the person. The
image detecting module 13 may detect facial features of the person in the
image, such as shape, complexion, or coordinates of individual sense
organs of the person's face in the image. Therefore, the classification
of the person in the image may represent a group that has the same
specific features, such as "female", "children", or an individual person,
such as "Michael Jackson." The degree of matching of each of the primary
objects to the corresponding classification of the downloaded video file
can be determined according to the percentage of the area of the primary
object that occupies a corresponding image of the video file. A greater
percentage denotes a higher match degree. The match degree can be also
determined according to specific features of the primary object, for
example, a match degree of a cartoon face and the person classification
may be lower than a match degree of a human face and the person
classification, and a true building may have a higher match degree with
the building classification than a model building.

[0011]The database 14 stores the thumbnail of the image and specific
information of each of the downloaded video files. Each of the thumbnails
of the images stored in the database 14 can be linked with a
corresponding downloaded video files in the file storing module 12. In
use, the interface module 16 may be operated on the personal computer 4
via the network module 3. The interface module 16 allows users to select
or enter keywords to perform search requests in the database 14.

[0012]The searching and ranking module 15 searches thumbnails of the
images of relative video files relative to topics of the entered keywords
in the database 14 according to corresponding classifications of the
downloaded video files, and ranks the miniature copies of the images of
the relative video files according to the corresponding specific
information, such as the degrees of matching of the primary objects with
the corresponding classifications of the video files, the names of
primary objects in each of the images, and the time information. For
example, when a keyword "person" is entered, the searching and ranking
module 15 may search and rank the miniature copies of the images of the
video files with a person classification, which may be a main
classification or a secondary classification. A thumbnail of an image of
a human may be listed before a thumbnail of an image of a mask modeled in
the image of a human face. Therefore, the thumbnails of the images of the
relative video files may be listed by the personal computer 4 in
sequence. The listed thumbnails of the images can be linked with the
downloaded video files correspondingly according to the website
information.

[0013]Referring to FIG. 2, an embodiment of a video searching method
includes the following steps.

[0014]Step S1: the file analyzing module 11 downloads video files from a
plurality of websites to the file storing module 12 through the network
module 3. The video files are recognized by detecting the name extensions
of the files on the plurality of websites.

[0015]Step S2: the image detecting module 13 obtains a thumbnail of an
image and the specific information of each of the downloaded video files,
and classifies the downloaded video files according to the specific
information correspondingly. The image detecting module 13 obtains the
specific information of each of the downloaded video files by detecting
the corresponding image included in the downloaded video file. Each of
the downloaded video files has a main classification and a secondary
classification, depending on percentages of the primary objects in the
image of the video file.

[0016]Step S3: the thumbnails of the images of the video files and the
corresponding specific information are stored in the database 14. Each of
the specific information stored in the database 14 can be linked with a
corresponding downloaded video file in the file storing module 12. The
database 14 provides the users with the specific information of the
downloaded video files. The database 14 allows the users to accept and
perform image searches via the interface module 16 which is communicated
with the personal computer 4 via the network module 3. In other
embodiments, the specific information can be stored in the database 14
without being linked with the downloaded video files in the file storing
module 12.

[0017]Step S4: the searching and ranking module 15 searches and ranks
thumbnails of the images of video files relative to a topic of a search
request in the database 14. The thumbnails of the images of the video
files relative to the topic of the search request can be searched
according to the main classification and the secondary classification of
the video files, and can be ranked according to the corresponding
specific information, such as the degrees of matching of the primary
objects and the corresponding classifications of the video files, the
names of primary objects in each of the images, and the time information.

[0018]The foregoing description of the exemplary embodiments of the
disclosure has been presented only for the purposes of illustration and
description and is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the
disclosure to the precise forms disclosed. Many modifications and
variations are possible in light of the above everything. The embodiments
were chosen and described in order to explain the principles of the
disclosure and their practical application so as to enable others of
ordinary skill in the art to utilize the disclosure and various
embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the
particular use contemplated. Alternative embodiments will become apparent
to those of ordinary skills in the art to which the present disclosure
pertains without departing from its spirit and scope. Accordingly, the
scope of the present disclosure is defined by the appended claims rather
than the foregoing description and the exemplary embodiments described
therein.